The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to a secure caching of server credentials for an information handling system.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
There is a concern for protecting data on IHS systems from theft or misappropriation. This concern will continue to grow as hackers and thieves become even more sophisticated in their methods for gaining this data and information. One can impose many levels of protection to an IHS and related components by adding the need for credentials, such as operating system passwords, BIOS passwords, hard disk drive (HDD) passwords, trusted platform module (TPM) authentication data (authdata), physical keys, hardware keys (e.g., USB keys) and a variety of other security features for different components or modules of the IHS. Adding these security features imposes a level of difficulty in a data center environment because a data center may have many IHSs, (e.g., IHS servers) and the IHSs may be expected to boot or reset with no physical human intervention, and as fast as possible. In fact, in some data centers, if the security feature requires human intervention every boot, or if it slows down the reboot process significantly, it may not get deployed in the data center.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide for secure caching of server credentials for an IHS to add security without requiring human intervention absent the disadvantages discussed above.